Food Assistance

The National School Lunch Program, established in 1946, is one of the federal government's oldest and largest food assistance programs. Schools participating in the school lunch program receive cash subsidies and food from the Agriculture Department. In turn, schools must meet federal requirements, such as offering free and reduced-price lunches to students and ensuring that lunches meet dietary requirements. This briefing report provides information on the (1) number of schools that withdrew from the program, (2) characteristics of schools that withdrew, (3) reasons why they withdrew, and (4) lunch services offered at the schools after they withdrew.

GAO found that: (1) only a few schools withdrew from NSLP between July 1989 and February 1993; (2) approximately 60 percent of the schools that withdrew from NSLP were public elementary schools with less than 600 students; (3) schools that left the program served fewer NSLP meals and fewer free and reduced-priced meals than other schools participating in NSLP; (4) 42 percent of the schools that withdrew from NSLP were from the Northeast; (5) the most frequent reason cited for school withdrawal from NSLP was that lunch programs were losing money; (6) high labor costs and other administrative factors were major influences on schools withdrawing from NSLP; and (7) more than 70 percent of the schools that withdrew from the program continued to provide daily lunch service with benefits comparable to those under NSLP.